Distinct pair of values SQL

What you mean is either

SELECT DISTINCT a, b FROM pairs;

SELECT a, b FROM pairs GROUP BY a, b;

If you want to want to treat 1,2 and 2,1 as the same pair, then this will give you the unique list on MS-SQL:

SELECT DISTINCT 
    CASE WHEN a > b THEN a ELSE b END as a,
    CASE WHEN a > b THEN b ELSE a END as b
FROM pairs

Inspired by @meszias answer above

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